laughter and friendship will cure just about anything

The year seemed to be passing quickly, it was Halloween already, Brandon could swear they had only been there for a week or two, not almost two months.

"Happy Halloween!" Lily appeared behind him, wearing a werewolf mask, which they all knew she had gotten from one of her uncles. Or maybe her mother had sourced it for her, compared to many of her family members, Lily's father seemed like the boring one, and he killed Voldemort!

"Happy Halloween Lily." Brandon turned to look at her, she took her mask off with a sigh.

"Why can't I scare you? I made Toby almost fall down the stairs earlier." She sighed.

"What? Is he okay?" Brandon asked, worried for his friend, Toby bruised easily, he had learnt that when the boy had tapped his shoulder and he had accidently punched him.

"He's fine." Lily scoffed, before seeing Rosa walk into the common room. "Cover me." She ducked down behind a sofa.

"Hey Rosa." Brandon waved at her, she smiled.

"Hey Bran, you seen Lily?" She asked. He shook his head.

"Not since she tried to scare me." Which was true, she sighed. Lily jumped out at her, and Rosa slapped her.

"Oh, sorry Lily!" She winced. "I didn't mean to hit you." But Lily was grinning.

"That was the best reaction I've had!" She celebrated, her cheek red from where Rosa had hit her.

"I'm sorry." Rosa said again.

"Don't worry about it Ro, I'm fine." Lily laughed, she put her mask back on and left the common room, looking for her next victim.

"I worry about her." Brandon sighed with a laugh.

"She's half Weasley." Rosa said, as though that explained it.

"I think she's just half crazy." Brandon commented.

"I'd better go and find her." Rosa sighed. "Before she gives someone a heart attack."

"See you later Ro." Brandon laughed as the girl sighed again, before departing from the common room. Brandon shook his head and went up to his dormitory to see if Toby was still there. He was.

"Is Lily downstairs?" He asked worriedly, as soon as Brandon entered the room.

"No, she left." He answered, smiling at his friend. "Are you okay?"

"She freaked me out." Toby explained. "I'm scared of werewolves."

"She's just joking, it's Halloween." Brandon told him.

"I know, but it's scary Bran! Werewolves are bloody scary!" Toby exclaimed, Brandon laughed.

"Don't worry, it'll get scarier." Brandon patted his friend's shoulder and pulled him up. "Come on, there's still enough time for a game of exploding snap before the feast."

"Alright, but if you go all sulky because I beat you again, then I will slap you." Toby warned, but he seemed a bit less freaked out now.

"I won't!" Brandon defended himself.

"Sure." Toby rolled his eyes and followed Brandon down to the common room.

"I won't!"

After a stressful game of exploding snap, where they eventually came to a draw, it was time for the feast. The Halloween feast was always spectacular, the house elves pulling out all the stops to decorate the castle for the one-day event.

"Hey." Helen appeared beside him, he frowned at her.

"Where have you been?" He asked her. She shrugged.

"Nowhere." She said, he looked at her, knowing there was something going in.

"Uh huh." He told her, speaking his disbelief.

"Shh." She shushed him. "You keep this secret; I won't tell them your boyfriend's underage."

"Helen, we haven't- "He started, but cut himself off when she winked at him.

"They don't know that." She told him with a smirk.

"You are evil." He commented in shock. She grinned.

"Yes, yes I am." She patted his shoulder and walked away, he glared at her retreating back and followed her and his friends into the great hall.

The feast was amazing. The food was the best they had eaten, the best that had been given to them yet. The house elves never seemed to disappoint.

"What is that?" Brandon asked as he looked at a strange-looking pie in the centre of the table.

"Pumpkin pie." Lily answered for him.

"It's great, try some." Rosa put a slice of pie onto his plate, he laughed and picked up a spoon.

"Alright then." He took a bite of the pie. It was delicious, he was surprised, he had expected something disgusting, but was pleasantly surprised. "Hey this is pretty good."

"Of course it is, I suggested it." Rosa told him.

"Okay, thanks Rosa." Brandon told her.

When he finally made his way back to his dormitory after chatting in the common room for hours, Brandon was surprised to see his owl fly in through the window, and drop a letter on his bed. His eyes lit up as he realised who it was from, but then he was the only one who ever wrote to him.

Hey Bran,

I was going to write this yesterday, but we were decorating the house for Halloween, so we didn't really have a lot of time. We took Sophie trick or treating around three hours ago and ended up getting a load of sweets ourselves, so we're having a gang sleepover. Mia dressed up as a pumpkin, which was the funniest thing, I wish you could have seen it, I'll show you a picture when you get back. We're watching horror films at the moment, Charlie's scared, I know he is, but he won't tell us.

How's school going? And when are you coming back? I miss you.

We have mocks in December and I don't think any of us are ready, it's kinda scary. Jaeden walked into our form room to see us revising and threw his chocolate bar at us, not his best move. We ate it. It was funny.

See you soon

Love you

Danny

All Brandon could wonder about was what on earth mocks were. Were Danny and his friends mocking someone? He wasn't sure, to be honest he didn't understand half of what Danny said sometimes, Muggle words didn't make sense at the best of times. And Jaeden, he knew the boy was Danny's best friend, he also knew the two were ridiculously close. And he had never met him. He was jealous of all the time Jaeden got to spend with Danny, when he got so little. He missed out on a lot, and he hated that, of which he later told Lily.

"Brandon, listen. Just because you're here and he's there, doesn't mean that you're missing out on anything big, you'll be back before his birthday right?" She asked.

"Yeah, his birthday's a couple days after I get back." Brandon nodded.

"So, there you go, you're not missing anything important, and if you're worried about his friends, you have issues." Lily answered.

"Ro, what do you think?" Brandon asked.

"I agree with her." Rosa answered.

"You two are useless." Brandon sighed.

"Excuse me! We're giving you amazing advice!" Lily argued.

"Uh huh."